Prince Andrew first British royal on Twitter

Prince Andrew, the Duke of York, has become the first member of the British royal family to open an official Twitter account.

Andrew, fourth in line to the throne, chose @TheDukeOfYork as his handle on the micro-blogging site, BBC reported.

His first tweet was "Welcome to my Twitter account - AY". If the tweets are signed AY, they would be written by Andrew himself.

The prince served for 22 years in the Royal Navy as a helicopter pilot.

Two golf clubs and two official royal family accounts -- @BritishMonarchy and @ClarenceHouse -- are among the organisations Andrew is already following on Twitter.

Within two hours of going online, the duke's account had more than 3,000 followers.